<
https://www.techdirt.com/2024/12/23/copyright-doesnt-provide-a-living-for-a-successful-author/>
"Copyright is built on a lie that most people seem to accept: artists can make
a decent living from the current system of rewards that copyright provides. As
Walled Culture the book (free digital versions available) explores, all the
data about artist remuneration shows that isn’t true. Alongside such dry
statistics, it’s good to hear about the personal experiences of creators, and I
recently came across a fascinating post by the writer Monica Byrne, published
in May this year. Its title is self-explanatory: “Can an author make a living
from royalties?”. The post is particularly valuable because Byrne generously
gives all the details of her earnings arising from her second novel, making it
possible to see the reality of copyright for a modern creator who seems to be
thriving:
First things first: by most measures in traditional publishing, my second
novel The Actual Star was a success. It earned out its higher-than-average
advance, which was $40,000*, less agent fee.
“Earned out” refers to the system of paying authors an advance against possible
future earnings from royalties. It is only after that advance has been “earned
out” by actual royalties that additional money is paid to an author. Byrne says
that
The Actual Star is in the top 20% of all books published in terms of
earning out. But the additional royalties she has received after earning out
are rather small: for the past calendar year they amounted to just $4,370.67,
and to $6,936.14 in total. Looking at the overall income, she writes:
“But Monica, you were paid $34,000 up front.” (That’s $40,000 less the 15%
agent fee.)
Yes, this is true! So that brings my total earnings for the book to $40,936
[$34,000+$6,936].
If we average that over the time since we sold the book (October 2019),
that’s $8,187/year.
If we average that over the time since I actually began to research and
write the book (January 2012) to today, that’s $3,411/year.
Clearly, it’s not possible to live on such a meager income. Byrne explains how
she manages:
The reason I can survive is because I have the incredible support of a
direct patronage community. The amount of support fluctuates from month to
month, and the changes Musk made to Twitter have severely damaged my ability
to advertise. As of now, I can still pay for basics—housing, food,
healthcare, transportation—especially now that I’ve left the U.S. to save
money. But my situation is very rare. And maintaining it is its own
full-time job."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
